Closer Look at the 19" LCD Monitors Features. Part II. Page 12

Another bunch of 19-inch LCD panels has been reviewed at X-bit labs. Check out our new roundup for the detailed indepth tests of 10 LCD monitors including the solutions from Samsung, NEC, Acer, BenQ, Sony and Prestigio.

Samsung SyncMaster 192B

The SyncMaster 192B is a new model from Samsung featuring the new design, known to the users from some models of the 152 and 172 series. I have already mentioned many times that this design is very successful. The folding base allows you to change the height and tilt of the screen. You can fold it altogether to hang the display on the wall. The connectors sit in the base to avoid the usual mess of cables on the desk. If you want to use the display in the portrait mode, you fold the base and fasten a standard VESA-compatible base to its holes. The SyncMaster 192B only has an analog D-Sub connector.

The menu is Samsung’s standard one. Just like with the above-described 191N, we have the Magic Bright mode with three options of the screen brightness – you switch between them using the “-“ button. The “+” button disables Magic Bright to give you access to the manual brightness controls.

The auto-adjustment works properly, and the image is really crisp. The viewing angles are pretty wide; the response time is small, at least subjectively.

By default, the brightness control is set to 80%, the contrast to 50%. Setting the controls to 50% and 40% (brightness and contrast, respectively) we get the desired 100nit screen brightness. Thus, the display offers a wide range of brightness adjustment.

There are three color temperature options – we saw them by previous Samsung models: Reddish (5490K for white and 6840K for gray), Bluish (6540K and 8240K) and user-defined (by default, corresponds to 5740K and 7290K). Again, we see a disappointing gap between the temperatures of white and gray colors.

The tonality of the screen colors is visually shifted to blue-green. The measurements prove it: red is low, while blue and green are too high.

At 100nit screen brightness, we have basically the same picture: red is low along the entire range, green is reproduced close to the ideal, blue is a little higher than necessary in the middle of the range.

The response time of the display depends on the contrast (unlike the previous model). The lower is the screen brightness, the higher becomes the response time. It grows from 26ms at maximum settings to 36ms at 100nit screen brightness. Anyway, the display is visually fast and comfortable to work and watch movies on.

Pixel rise time

Pixel fall time

Brightness measurements gave out excellent results. The level of black is the lowest among the tested displays, about 0.3nit at default settings. On the other hand, the brightness of white is low at the same settings. Anyway, the display did better than most of the competitors in the brightness tests.

Overall, the SyncMaster 192B is a good buy with its proper design and low level of black. Its disadvantage is the inclination towards blue-green tones, which is cured by color calibration.

The color profile for the Samsung SyncMaster 192B display: sm192b.icm.